David N. Welton

My name is David N. Welton. After nearly 15 years (give or take) of living in Padova Italy, I currently reside in Bend, Oregon with my wife Ilenia, our daughter Helen and son Daniel. Ilenia and I were married the 8th of
July, 2005 in Padova, my "home away from home" in Italy.

Professional Life

I am the owner, operator, lead programmer, chef, chief janitor, but
most of all, "builder of stuff" at DedaSys LLC. My
curriculum vitae is available as HTML or PDF. My main areas of expertise involve free/open source software, such
as Linux, Ubuntu/Debian, Apache, Ruby, Tcl, Python, Java, C, and so on. I am also interested in
work that involves my knowledge of Italy and the Italian language.

Free Software

I spend a lot of my time working on Free Software (Open Source Software).
I have been involved with several organized projects, such as Debian, and the Apache Software
Foundation. More about my involvement with free software and programming here: freesoftware.

Contact

I can be contacted at either davidw (at) apache.org or davidw (at) welton.it. I
welcome correspondence regarding pretty much anything - so feel free to write about whatever's
on your mind.

I lived in Eugene until the summer of 1995. Not knowing
exactly what I would find, I left for Italy, where I
found work as an English teacher in Padua (Padova, in
Italian).

After a year in Padova, I returned to Eugene,
and then found my first programming job, with
CKS Partners, in Portland, Oregon.

After from Portland, my next stop was San
Francisco, where I worked for Linuxcare.
I was involved with their purchase of a nascent
Italian firm, Prosa, and I
moved back to Padova to be part of that
operation.

As happened to many dot-companies, things didn't
go so well, and so I struck out on my own as an
independant consultant operating under the name
DedaSys, both in Padova, in the California Bay,
and then Padova again.

Ilenia and I moved to Innsbruck, Austria in the
spring of 2007 so that she could pursue a
post-doc position at the University of
Innsbruck, in the field of biotech/proteomics.
I am currently working on some product ideas for
DedaSys.

After Austria, we moved back to Padova. We really enjoyed our
time in Austria, but we decided that it's probably not where
we want to raise our daughter. Our son Daniel was born in
Padova.

After nearly 15 years of Italy (and Austria) we are now in
Bend,
Oregon, which has a lot to offer in terms of great outdoor
stuff, good schools, and a budding startup scene.

I occassionally add to my collection of stories,
anectodes and observations of what it's like to
live in Italy: "The
Real Italy" (formerly, "The Padova Chronicles").

Hobbies

I got my start cycling with a mountain bike, riding on the trails around Eugene, Oregon, and
it still makes me happy any time I get on a bicycle and go. I used to race both road and
mountain bikes, and still love to ride. While living in Italy, I have been fortunate enough
to have seen a lot of big races, such as the Giro di Lombardia, several stages of the Giro
d'Italia, a stage of the Tour de France, and of course the Giro del Veneto, which passes
over the roads I have ridden countless times myself. During my 1995-1996 stay in Padova, I
occasionally tagged along with some professional cyclists, who were really nice guys, and a
lot of fun to ride with. Of course they were way, way faster than me, but more often than
not, they were riding to train, not to prove how fast they were.

My bike shop of choice in Padova has always been Cicli
Morello, in Via Sorio, run by Mirco and Roberto. I have one of their custom made road
bicycles, and it is a joy to ride. In Eugene, I recommend Paul's. They have always treated me really well, and
I worked there one summer, as a teenager.

In Padova, one of my favorite things to do was spend time at
the Maracaibo, where I
even learned some salsa dancing. It changed owners,
apparently, and is no longer the place it once was.

David Welton's GPG Key

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